The Audi legend lives on in a new guise on tap, but the hearts of enthusiasts will remain tied to the successes achieved in the rally.
For those who loved challenges on dirt roads, 1984 was a spectacular year. The history of the Four Rings company in motorsport has been peppered with triumphs of the highest caliber. The Ingolstadt brand wanted to chart a new frontier in all-wheel drive for grow its technical value and image.
The first car in question was developed on the basis of the Audi Coupé to limit production to just 400 examples necessary for Group B homologation. In 1980 in Geneva the car took everyone’s breath away, creating enormous expectations about its future. The engine was a 2.1 liter with a transmission with three differentials enclosed in a single block.
The first ever stage in the Rally already gave the effective value of the German company’s project and gradually many other innovations occurred which led to highly advanced technology which then also spread to the car market. On sports cars, initially, the center differential was built with a 50 – 50 splithowever in the 1980s the Torsen self-locking center differential was born. It was a simple mechanism but it included gears and coil springs capable of carrying out their compensation function in normal conditions, i.e. when the speed between the wheels varied progressively, as in mixed sections or in the case of torque transfers.
The success of the Audi Quattro
After leaving the Rally competition scene, Audi launched itself on the track in the Imsa category, achieving good results. All-wheel drive was a resounding success on road models with the 80 and 100 sedansthen came the first RS2, A3, built on the platform of the Volkswagen Golf, and the S3, today capable of developing the transversal architecture that gave fame to the modern compact cars of the German company.
The Audi name developed on the basis of the successes achieved on the track in the 1980s, combining the world of rallying with the daily world of road racing. After the successes achieved in the WRC, Audi technology was also cloned by other manufacturers but with less success. In Germany they also had the satisfaction of getting their hands on the House of Sant’Agata Bolognese. Audi is part of the Volkswagen giant and will also be present in Formula 1 from 2026. The Audi Quattro Sport acronym will always be remembered, while many other rivals have already been forgotten.
